FAQ

Straight answers.

Do I need an account?: Yes. Filing a notice, filling a form, and keeping a letter all require one. The account is the paper trail: every complaint, every reply you log, every document you drop in. Come back next month. File another. Show the board a history instead of a story. Google, X, or email. The scoreboard stays public. Your files do not live in the browser cache.
Why would they fix something they don’t have to?: Because a plumber for an afternoon is cheaper than a letter sitting on the board agenda. Corporations throw in small repairs the declaration never required — a patch, a lock, a visit — to make a resident go away. The letter is written so that courtesy is the easy option: a dated demand, the statute named, and a door left open. We send it. You are copied. We do not get on the phone and ‘negotiate.’ The letter is the negotiation.
Is this a law firm?: No. Reply Required is a team of property managers from across Canada. We write and send formal letters that cite the statute that governs your building. We do not give legal advice, appear at a tribunal, or go on the record as counsel. If you need that, hire a lawyer or licensed paralegal in your province.
Is the letter free?: No. Three sends from this desk are $29. One case, as long as it takes, is $49. Unlimited correspondence for the unit on your account is $99 once — that unit only, not every building you can type in. Forms stay free. You do not send the letter yourself — it goes out from Reply Required, and you are CC’d so the paper trail lives here.
Will you actually email my property manager?: Yes. That is the product. The letter is from Reply Required, on behalf of you. You are always on the CC. The manager’s Reply goes to a file-specific address, so it lands on your paper trail when you log in. To deliver live we use Resend: set RESEND_API_KEY, verify replyrequired.com, point inbound MX at Resend, and set the webhook to /api/webhooks/resend for email.received.
Why copy the board and head office?: Because the site manager’s incentive is to close the ticket and hope you get tired. The board hired the company. Head office keeps the contract. A letter that only goes to the person ignoring you is a letter they can delete.
Why didn’t my first letter threaten a records request?: Because seven days is too soon. The first letter is a stern demand for a dated written response — a plan, a plumber, a date. If they ignore that, you follow up. If the file is still dead 30 to 60 days later, then you use the CAO Request for Records form and ask for board minutes, work orders, and what the board was told. Jumping to s. 55 on day one is how a first letter sounds like theatre.
How do the manager ratings work?: Two layers. The desk score is what happens on files — replied, stalled, ignored, resolved. The resident score is a signed-in review (Google, X, or email), one per company per person, so the board is not a pile of fake one-stars. Firms that answer rise. Firms that ghost sink. Unreviewed companies sit in the middle until someone files a file or a review.
Do you name or rank condo board members?: No. This is not a scoreboard for volunteer directors, and we do not list their names. CAO has no bulk dump of who sits on a board, and published lists go stale. We rate management companies, the property managers at the desk, and the building. Letters can still copy a board@ address so a file does not die in one inbox.
How do you know my building’s manager?: We keep a registry of Canadian condominium corporations, addresses, and management companies compiled from public directories — condos.ca, company sites, ACMO 2000 contacts, the CCI Toronto directory, and indexed CMRAO records. When you save your building on your account, or start a letter, a missing address, corporation number, or manager name is added. Empty contact fields get filled. Switching a building from one company to another still goes through a correction, so one person cannot silently reassign a tower.
What if the lookup has the wrong manager?: Correct it. Managers change buildings. Boards fire companies. Edit the fields, then — if you are signed in — tap ‘Something here is wrong’ and save. The next resident of that address gets your version. We keep a log so a vandal cannot silently wipe a firm.
Do I need the declaration?: It helps. Repair versus maintenance, and unit versus common element, live in those pages. The standard unit by-law says what they restore after damage — it is often a separate document. Upload every by-law you have, not just one. There is no free national dump; land titles sell the official copy.
What if I only have phone calls and no emails?: Log them. Date, who you spoke to, what they said. A paper trail can start as a list of calls. The letter turns that list into something a board cannot call ‘hearsay from the lobby’.
Is CAT the right next step?: Sometimes. CAT is strong on records, many nuisances, pets, parking, storage, and related charges. It is the wrong desk for most repair and construction fights. We flag this on every letter. Check the CAO website before you pay a filing fee.
Can a tenant use this?: Tenants can document and write. Many Act rights (records, voting, requisitions) belong to owners. If you rent, copy the owner — they may be the person who has to sign the records request. Landlord-tenant issues also sit under the Residential Tenancies Act, which is a different fight.
Where is my data stored?: The file you are writing lives on this device. If you sign in, the correspondence, the outcome, and any declaration or by-laws you choose to share sit in our database keyed to the building. Photos stay on the machine unless you attach them yourself.
I am outside Ontario.: Letters cite the statute for the province you pick — Ontario’s Condo Act, B.C.’s Strata Property Act, Alberta, Quebec, and the rest we have mapped. CAO forms are Ontario-only because that is whose forms they are. Other provinces still get a stern letter and the records path that exists under their own law.

Reply Required is not a law firm and this is not legal advice. Condominium disputes turn on your province’s statute, your declaration or bylaws, and the facts. We write a stern paper trail so a manager, a board, a tribunal, or a lawyer has something to work with. For legal advice, retain a lawyer or licensed paralegal in your province.